Which bushing neck dies?

I want to purchase some bushing neck dies and was looking at Redding and Forster. I understand you need a body die with the Redding to bump that shoulder back but Forster claims to size the neck and bump the shoulder in one step.

I was also looking at the Redding's type S full length sizing/bushing die and was thinking about using this die to accomplish the same thing as Forsters Bushing Bump Neck Sizing Die, of course after correctly adjusting the die.

While I have no experience with Forster dies, they have an excellent reputation. I use the Redding Competition Die Sets which have a bushing neck sizing die and a body die. I run my brass through the body die prior to neck sizing. The nice thing about bushing dies is, you can vary the amount of neck tension. In any case, whether you go with Redding or Forster dies, you will be getting some of the best dies made.

Don

ranger335v

September 21, 2011, 09:15 AM

"...experiences and or advice on these dies?"

Experience? I no longer own any bushing or conventional neck dies, now have Lee collet neck dies for all the cartridges I neck size for.

Clark

September 21, 2011, 01:38 PM

My Redding 223 Full Length "S" bushing dies for the .223 are the best looking and most expensive dies I have for the .223.

My Lee Collet neck die for the .223 is the ugliest and cheapest 223 die I own.

Years went by of my using the Redding while all my other 223 dies gathered dust.

Then I did a controlled experiment with a population of brass, over their life, dedicated to one sizer die.

The die was the independent variable.
The brass, rifle, load, number of shots, etc was controlled.
The concentricity and brass growth were the dependent variables.

It turns out that the Redding bushing die is the worst, the Lee Collet neck is the best, and all my other .223 dies are in between.

If this were an intelligence test, and I was being timed, then I am border line retarded, as this took ~5 years and 10,000 reloads before I realized my error.

USSR

September 21, 2011, 02:01 PM

It turns out that the Redding bushing die is the worst, the Lee Collet neck is the best, and all my other .223 dies are in between.

While I cannot speak of your individual .223 dies, the Redding bushing dies are predominate among the 1,000 yard F Class shooters I shot with, so they clearly cannot be bad dies.

Don

Clark

September 21, 2011, 02:40 PM

USSR

It turns out that the Redding bushing die is the worst, the Lee Collet neck is the best, and all my other .223 dies are in between.
While I cannot speak of your individual .223 dies, the Redding bushing dies are predominate among the 1,000 yard F Class shooters I shot with, so they clearly cannot be bad dies.

Don
I have a custom .223 reamer with .250" neck, and brass fired in rifles I have chambered with the tight neck do fine with the bushing.
But my factory rifles with SAAMI chambers with chamber necks at .256" and fired brass comes out of them measuring .255" necks, the Redding "S" die gets poor concentricity with them.
The testing I did above, was with a factory rifle, a Ruger #1V.

Walkalong

September 21, 2011, 02:55 PM

The nice thing about bushing dies is, you can vary the amount of neck tension. In any case, whether you go with Redding or Forster dies, you will be getting some of the best dies made.Agreed. As with all things, one must measure the results. If the results are bad, Redding or Forster will replace the die.

Another option is hand dies designed to be used with an arbor press. Wilson or Niel Jones is the way to go there, short of custom ones.

I had a Benchrest gunsmith make me a threaded bushing die for my 6 PPC bench gun, and it produces slightly FL sized cases (Shoulder bumped .001 or less, and the body sized even less) that measure nearly dead on as far as concentricity goes.

The bushing die system is not flawed, even if some of this type are made poorly.